


tangled up in blue

by whiternights



Series: holding onto gravity [1]
Category: NU'EST
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:35:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24789343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiternights/pseuds/whiternights
Summary: On the eighty-ninth second, his reverie was broken by a blue umbrella that appeared in front of him, blocking his view of the drenched night scene.“You forgot your umbrella again?”
Relationships: Hwang Minhyun & Kang Dongho | Baekho, Hwang Minhyun/Kang Dongho | Baekho
Series: holding onto gravity [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1793878
Comments: 12
Kudos: 22





	tangled up in blue

**Author's Note:**

> [⏯ _Nell - Blue_](https://open.spotify.com/track/1pDeCXK0BnipWUuyeW4Blf?si=lFbetyMPQgq4AuYaJrnA1A)

It was raining.

Dongho had just finished his shift at the convenience store that he worked at, and as he stood by the door looking at the heavy raindrops falling from the dark night skies to the wet concrete below, he cursed himself mentally for forgetting to bring his umbrella then, of all possible days.

Eighty-eight seconds later, he was still standing by the door, staring blankly at the raindrops dancing in front of him as he considered whether to stay in the shop and wait for the rain to cease or to make a run for the bus stop before the weather had a chance to worsen. On the eighty-ninth second, his reverie was broken by a blue umbrella that appeared in front of him, blocking his view of the drenched night scene.

_“You forgot your umbrella again?”_

The bearer of the blue umbrella was now facing him, a hint of amusement in his dark eyes and a subtle smile on his lips as he stared squarely at Dongho. He had not uttered those words himself, but by the look on his face, Dongho was certain that it was what he would have said, had he spoken. Dongho narrowed his eyes at the other but chose to let it pass. Obviously, he was making fun of Dongho again.

The boy looked up at the roof of the umbrella he was holding as if to say, _“I have this. You don’t.”_ He shoved his free hand inside his pocket, the umbrella’s spine leaning against his shoulder.

_“Yes, I can see that, Hwang Minhyun.”_ Dongho rolled his eyes to himself before nodding his head towards his friend. _“How about you make yourself useful and share that umbrella with me?”_

Without waiting for an answer, Dongho stepped away from the shop and quickly sprinted towards the shelter of the wide umbrella. Raindrops were falling all around him, but he squeezed himself closer to Minhyun’s side to avoid getting wet. Once satisfied, he turned to look at Minhyun and found that he was looking right back at Dongho with an eyebrow raised.

_“What?”_ Dongho asked, staring back at him innocently. Minhyun shook his head at him in mock disapproval. Without a word, he turned and started walking down the dark street, and Dongho had to hurry after him to escape the raindrops.

_“How about we head to the cafe first?”_ Dongho suggested, glancing up at the boy as he walked closely beside him. Minhyun was looking ahead of him with that blank expression on his face again, the one he wore a little too often for Dongho's liking. _“My treat,”_ Dongho added after a few seconds. He tried not to smirk when he noticed Minhyun already starting to walk in the cafe’s direction. He knew his friend all too well: Hwang Minhyun would never pass up anything free.

The cafe’s door opened with the familiar chime of the bells that he was already used to hearing. Minhyun closed the dripping blue umbrella and placed it in a bucket that held a few other umbrellas by the entrance.

The place was barely occupied, considering the time of night and the weather. Dongho found his way towards their usual table by the window, with Minhyun following right behind him. As usual, he took the seat facing the counter, and Minhyun sat opposite him, leaning against the chair’s backrest the way he always did.

A few seconds later, a girl approached their table with the menu.

“One Americano, please. Hot. And one grapefruit ade, too.” Dongho didn’t need to look at the menu to recite his order. It was their usual, after all. He caught the girl looking at him strangely, but he quickly dismissed it. The girl was new; he could tell because he never saw her in their numerous visits in the past.

It didn’t take long before the same girl served their coffee and placed both cups in front of Dongho. He took the Americano for himself and pushed the grapefruit ade towards Minhyun who was watching the girl serving them before turning to Dongho and nodding his head slightly in acknowledgment. Still trying to act cool in front of the baristas, as usual. Dongho shook his head to himself. Was it two years ago? One of the cafe's baristas kept trying to flirt with Minhyun, and every time it happened, he would grin smugly at Dongho who would only watch in irritation and, later on, boredom.

Dongho almost smiled in victory when the girl serving them that night paid no attention whatsoever to Minhyun. Of course, it was probably because she was too busy staring at Dongho, himself, but again, he chose to ignore this. Eventually, the girl headed back to the counter after confirming that they had no other additional orders.

Neither of the two made any move to start a conversation. It didn’t bother Dongho, though, because they had always been like that: silence, with Minhyun, was always comfortable. After a while, he cradled his cup in his hands, flinching slightly as its heat came in contact with his palms. He took a sip of his coffee and sighed in contentment, feeling the all-too-familiar flavor spread warmth inside him. Minhyun looked on in amusement but refused to touch his drink himself.

Outside the window, rain continued to pour, making the lights outside appear smeared through the glass panes where countless raindrops clung and danced their way downwards. It was subtle, but over the pattering of the raindrops outside, he could hear soft music start to play through the cafe. After a few seconds of listening, he raised his eyes from his cup of coffee and looked at the boy in front of him.

_“Hey, Minhyun. It’s your favorite band.”_

The corners of the other’s lips tugged up ever the slightest as he nodded, looking at Dongho as if impressed that he even knew this basic fact. Dongho smiled – smug, almost. When Minhyun first introduced the band to him, Dongho had little to no interest in it, barely even remembering a couple of song titles whenever Minhyun tried to quiz him. Now, Dongho knew more songs than Minhyun ever would.

_“Did you know?”_ He closed his eyes briefly as he listened to the repetitive melody. _“This one's called Blue.”_

Blue. Funny how the song is named after that color.

Hwang Minhyun had always been firm in claiming he didn’t have a single favorite color, but from his years of knowing him, Dongho knew that his friend had a strange affinity with the color blue. He simply seemed to gravitate towards items of that color, the umbrella just being one example.

He took another sip of his coffee and looked at Minhyun. He had that blank expression on his face again. It was a look that fascinated Dongho as much as it bothered him from the very first moment that they met at the beginning of middle school, back when he never imagined that the awkward-looking guy seated at the farthest corner of their classroom would grow into a handsome young man and would become his best friend. Whenever Minhyun had that expression on his face, he would look like he was in another world, one that Dongho could never grasp no matter how hard he tried to reach for it.

He couldn’t help but quietly study Minhyun’s face for a moment. Dongho didn’t want to admit it, but it was slowly getting harder for him to remember exactly what he looked like. Minhyun had the same slightly messy mop of dark hair from his memories, the same set of sharp eyes and the same piercing stare, the same straight nose, the same lips that were set in a straight line at that moment. It was all the same, yet Dongho was finding it strangely difficult to put these individual pieces together and make out his features as a whole. Minhyun seemed to notice this because a small, knowing smile crept into his face, curving the once-straight line of his lips.

Dongho took his third sip of the coffee. Again, the warmth spread inside him, and the smile that the boy in front of him wore found its way to his own face, albeit tinged subtly with the bitterness that lingered on his tongue.

_“Look what I brought.”_ He fished inside the pocket of his jeans and found what he was looking for. He brought his hand upon the table to show Minhyun the rubber band that he was holding. It was blue. Or at least it was supposed to be.

Wrapping the rubber band around his thumb and index finger of his left hand, he stretched it slightly before reaching out the index finger of his right and weaving it through the band. He didn’t even have to think nor look down; his hands were all too used to this. In the blink of an eye, the band was stretched into a star, rubber running through each of the five legs as if cutting them off from the star’s body. It was the first trick he showed Minhyun years before.

_“Do you remember this?”_

Minhyun only gave him another knowing smile in response.

A year ago, they had been in that very same cafe, and Minhyun was helping him with his calculus homework. It had always been that way: Minhyun helping Dongho with his maths and Dongho helping Minhyun with his sciences. That afternoon, Dongho was in a particularly irritable mood, not only because he was having difficulty understanding the concept that the boy was teaching him but also because the air conditioning unit in the cafe suddenly broke. They couldn’t be bothered to pack up and go to another cafe, so they stayed despite the unforgiving weather. Unfortunately, Dongho had always been a heavy sweater, and it didn’t take long before he was restlessly trying to keep his hair off his perspiring forehead.

He could still remember the look of annoyance on Minhyun’s face when he noticed that Dongho was distracted from the topic he was discussing. And that was how Minhyun ended up tying Dongho's hair back in a messy, lopsided ponytail of sorts on the top of his head using a blue rubber band that he apparently had in his pocket. Minhyun used to always carry one around “in case of emergency.” In the end, the rubber band had been useless in that regard, but Minhyun's little habit had rubbed off on Dongho.

Feeling the worn elastic between his fingers, Dongho smiled at the memory. The rubber band back then was the same one that he was holding at the moment, although what was once blue had turned into pale ash with time. He was even surprised that it survived all those months with him; after all, every piece of rubber band that Minhyun had lent him in the past never failed to break after just a few days. How could they not when Dongho always used them to practice tricks and make new patterns to impress Minhyun with?

He was more careful with this particular rubber band, however, because it was the last one that Minhyun gave him. Besides, he had no reason to play with rubber bands anymore.

Dongho took his fourth sip of the coffee before he began to play with the rubber band again, twisting and looping it around his fingers. _Under, stretch, twist, loop, under right, stretch, over left, stretch._

_“Hey, Minhyun. It’s almost been a year.”_

He released the rubber band just as a shiver ran through his body. The coldness was creeping through his wet clothes soaked by the rain, making his skin underneath feel like it was freezing. The rainwater from his hair traveled down his back and seeped through the fabric of his shirt. A small puddle was beginning to form on the floor where his clothes dripped.

There was no blue umbrella in the bucket by the cafe’s entrance. The grapefruit ade in front of him remained untouched. Dongho took another sip from his bitter coffee. Like him, it was starting to get cold.

_Under, stretch, twist, loop, under right, stretch, over left, stretch. Tangle. Stretch. Tangle. Stretch._

_Snap._

The rubber band broke and flew across the table, landing on the chair in front of Dongho.

It was empty.

_“Hey, Hwang Minhyun. Why did you leave me behind?”_

**Author's Note:**

> ( wrote this some years ago and posted here with some changes ☂ )


End file.
